Sara Piazza

BIO:

Sara is the affiliate owner of CrossFit Virtus Prairieville. Her certifications include: CrossFit Level 1 and CrossFit Kids. She has been involved in athletics her entire life and played various sports. She participated in track, volleyball and cheerleading in high school and played and coached softball. She is also a four-time marathoner and has run several half-marathons. She has been CrossFitting off and on since 2009 when her husband introduced her to it, and has been doing it consistently since the opening of CrossFit Virtus in May of 2011.

Sara grew up in East Grand Forks, MN and has lived in Louisiana for six years. She is married to Cecil Piazza (owner/head coach at CrossFit Virtus) and they have two girls, Sophia (9 years old) and Celia (7 years old). Sara served in the Army National Guard for 13 years (seven years in Minnesota and six years in Louisiana) where she was a military broadcaster. She deployed to Iraq in 2004-2005 where she performed aerial surveillance around Baghdad. She ended her service in May of 2011 as a Sergeant First Class. She enjoyed mentoring/training soldiers, especially when it came to physical training. She received the Physical Fitness Badge for Physical Fitness Excellence several times throughout her military career.

She received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in English from the University of North Dakota in 2003. She graduated from Baton Rouge School of Court Reporting in 2008 and currently works as a freelance court reporter for Verbatim Reporting.

A message from Sara:

I’ve been interested in fitness my whole life, and up until CrossFit, working out mostly consisted of distance running and occasional weightlifting. CrossFit has completely changed my outlook of what “healthy” and “fit” really mean. To me, the most valuable aspect of CrossFit is the fact that it makes us pretty good at everything, but not great at anything. No other fitness program can greatly develop your cardio capacity while enabling you to lift huge amounts, all in the same workout, and all in about 20 minutes a day. And the results are amazing.

I truly enjoy encouraging others to reach their potential. I’ve learned that most of us have no clue what we are made of. Many people pass through life and never leave their comfort zones. CrossFit pushes you outside of your boundaries, physically and mentally. The group setting allows us to feed on the energy around us. When you think you can’t go any faster or lift any more or complete that last round, you look to your left and to your right and you see your buddies suffering, sweating and determined. And you push through it. And you finish it.

CrossFit changes you. It gives you confidence. It’s competitive, but it’s not about your time on the whiteboard. It’s about beating that voice inside your head.